Collaborative Engagement has been identified as an enabling platform contributing to the ‘New-Era-of-Workplace’ and should be carefully examined and understood, otherwise the organisation will begin to lose its competitive advantage because of its inability to capitalise quickly.
And Collaborative Engagement fits nicely as an innovation initiative that meets the desired business outcomes most favoured by a board of directors and shareholders.
Embrace new business models to create innovative ways of how work gets done in the Extended Enterprise
Collaborative Engagement as an Innovation Initiative
The power of innovation as a means to achieving competitive advantage is a verified pillar of success. Business leaders are constantly told to innovate and to do more with less.
New-Era-of-Workplace Business model innovation
The KPMG survey found that about 40% of CEOs doubt the sustainability of their current business model.
Boston Consulting Group reports that in a survey of 1,500 executives, that 94% stated that their companies had attempted some degree of business model innovation, in an attempt to make their organisations more resilient and grow beyond the boundaries of the existing businesses.
Businesses are reinventing themselves and forming dynamic networks of highly empowered teams to innovate rapidly. GE, Cisco, Deloitte, AirBnB, Uber, and many others are moving in this direction.
Collaborative Engagement as an ongoing improvement Initiative
Organisations practicing ongoing improvement are constantly looking for ways to improve aspects, or all, of their business.
Businesses have the highest number of pain points at the intersection of technology and process work. Many companies struggle to retain work processes that may be critical but are not core.
Business processes have undergone multiple revisions ranging from mapping, standardising, reengineering through to transformation.
At the same time, high performing organisations have recognised that creating real differentiation requires new ways of thinking about how work gets done.
“Efficiency is doing things right.
Effectiveness is doing the right thing.”
Peter F. Drucker
The last wave related to business processes has focused around the reduction of costs and improvement in outcomes by outsourcing, consolidating and centralising operations and/or creating Shared Services centres.
New business models and ways of working are needed at all levels within the business
In the new-era-of-workplace, traditional ways of Human Resource Management and compliance management are costly and uncertain of their effectiveness.
Meeting processing and compliance challenges requires a cost effective, disciplined process with tight audit trails. Compliance requirements impact many functions: HR, Legal, IT, Finance.
Enterprise decision-makers are redefining what is core to their businesses
High performing organisations have identified what is “core” to their businesses and focus intently on streamlining those processes, while handing over non-core processes work that may be important but not essential to creating and sustaining competitive differentiation to external service providers.
Knowledge update processes, Compliance legislative monitoring & reporting, Expenses processing, Payroll processing & Auto-enrolment compliance, Compensation structuring, incentives & rewards, clinical trials processing for Pharma, claims processes for insurance companies and customer engagement for banks… plus many more.
Handing over such transactional activities and structured processes to external service providers, enables companies to focus on tasks that drive higher value. To focus more intently on what is core to the brand and not just on protecting “the way we’ve always done it.”
And the good news is that companies can act now to embrace more efficient shared services delivery models without exposing their organisation to unmitigated risk.
“The challenge for organisations today is how to enlist the hearts and minds of all their employees. Even those employees involved in direct production and service delivery must strive for continuous improvements in quality, reducing costs and process times to meet customers’ expectations and keep up with the competition… Doing the job as it was done before is unlikely to be enough.”
Robert Kaplan and David Norton, the ‘inventors’ of the Balanced Scorecard
New Business Process Shared Services Models are Increasing in Adoption
Shared services models are already dominating every sector of the economy.
Often in the form of a Shared Services Center of Excellence, or similar concentration of talent and resources, shared services models and platforms are becoming even more widespread in Human Resources Management.
Business Process Improvement & Transformational Considerations
There are a number of transformational aspects to Collaborative Engagement that also need to be considered as a measure towards achieving process excellence.
The continual improvement attributes of Collaborative Engagement in the business is an integral aspect supporting the business case to stakeholders.
A GAME-CHANGER FOR THE NEW-ERA-OF-WORKPLACE
Collaborative Engagement is a significant contender in the ‘New-Era-of-Workplace’.
Above all,Collaborative Engagement is a growth accelerator for both employees and employers.